MR: It was a privilege to defeat LTTE
Posted on May 18th, 2016

Courtesy The Island

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in a hard hitting statement yesterday blasted the authorities for releasing hardcore LTTEers numbering a few hundred, while armed forces personnel were being arrested and held continuously without bail.

“My government did not try to exact revenge from LTTE cadres captured at the end of the war. We rehabilitated and released more than 11,000 LTTE combatants. It was only around 200 to 300 of the most dangerous terrorist operatives who were kept in detention with a view to taking legal action against them for various crimes,” he explained

The full text of President Rajapaksa’s statement:

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On 19 May 2016, we mark the 7th anniversary of the victory of our armed forces over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam which had officially been designated by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as the world’s deadliest and most effective terrorist organisation outranking even Al Qaeda. This was a victory that captured the imagination of the whole world. I consider it a privilege to have been able to give political leadership to the armed forces to enable them to achieve this feat which has become an inspiration to all countries beset by terrorism.

It is a matter of regret that we are now marking the 7th anniversary of the proudest and most noteworthy achievement of our armed forces in a debilitated state reminiscent of the dark, defeatist years before 2006. Today, the armed forces have been made to feel that it was wrong to have won the war. Dangerous LTTE terrorists held in detention are being released while armed forces personnel are being arrested and held in detention continuously without bail. My government did not try to exact revenge from LTTE cadres captured at the end of the war. We rehabilitated and released more than 11,000 LTTE combatants. It was only around 200 to 300 of the most dangerous terrorist operatives who were kept in detention with a view to taking legal action against them for various crimes.

It is these dangerous terrorists who are being released while our war heroes are being arrested and jailed. All this is taking place in a context where an agreement has been arrived at between the present government and the international powers that tried their best to stop the war and to rescue Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE leadership. According to this agreement which has been reached by co-sponsoring a joint resolution in the UN Human Rights Council, a war crimes tribunal will be established to try our war heroes with the participation of foreign judges, prosecutors and investigators. Armed forces personnel who are suspected of having committed war crimes but against whom there isn’t enough evidence to present in a war crimes court would be removed through administrative action. Furthermore, the government has agreed to allow Western powers to directly finance and maintain this war crimes mechanism.

While our armed forces are being persecuted in this manner, the local and international separatist forces that brought the present government into power are busy with their project of dividing the country. Demands are being made for the complete withdrawal of our armed forces from the North and East. Northern politicians are forcing their way into army camps to humiliate and demoralise the armed forces just as the LTTE did during the infamous ceasefire after 2002. Resolutions are being passed in the Northern Provincial Council demanding a federal state in the North and East. Our motherland is thus facing one of her darkest moments. At this decisive moment, I call upon the entire nation to remember on the 19th of May the brave armed forces personnel who sacrificed their lives so that we may have peace, and to express solidarity with those who have suffered debilitating injuries in the service of the motherland.

The present government claims to be promoting reconciliation by commemorating the war victory with a cultural show instead of a military parade. However it is this same military victory that delivered the Tamil and Muslim people of the North and East from the clutches of terrorism. Tamil children are no longer being abducted to serve as cannon fodder for the LTTE and Muslim people are no longer living under the tyranny of the LTTE. Even though separatist elements seek to portray the war as a war against the Tamil people, it was a war to end terrorism and was never directed at any ethnic group. After the war ended my government took steps to restore democracy in the North and East and to accelerate the development of those areas.

On the 7th anniversary of the war victory that amazed the whole world, I call upon the government to stop persecuting our armed forces personnel and to release those who have been wrongfully arrested and detained. Even the Magistrates before whom cases against these armed forces personnel are being heard have expressed surprise at the flimsy pretexts under which members of the armed services are being arrested and kept in remand custody. Never in living memory have men who have done so much for our nation been treated so unfairly.

 

3 Responses to “MR: It was a privilege to defeat LTTE”

  1. Fran Diaz Says:

    Dear former President Mahinda Rajapaske,

    Thank you for telling us what is going on in the country re the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka, and bringing the salient points to our attention.

    ———–

    It is with some reluctance that I am writing in on the topic of the Conflict as the flood problems prevail in Lanka.

    It breaks our Hearts to learn what is going on. Shame on the Yahap govt. They are reduced to a spineless, gutless lot, not worth the title ‘government’ for that they are not. The present govt appears to be guided by foreign powers, with puppet leaders on show to subdue the masses with tall stories. A form of Fascism is setting in by Yahap ? Where the country is headed – it is not at all clear.

    The entire right thinking Nation must hold PEACEFUL protests re the unfair detention of Army personnel. There is no other way out of this mess to get the Army personnel released. If there are other Peaceful ways, Readers do please write in.

    Also, sorry to say this, but the entire right thinking Nation must highlight the LTTE atrocities of 30 yrs – these atrocities which started after the Vadukoddai Resolution of 1976 (Eelam through Violence), have been hidden away by the Yahap govt in the name of ‘Reconciliation’ headed by CBK. Please recall the earlier ‘Reconciliation’ headed by CBK/RW pair with Norway – mini-submarines were there in the LTTE North, with LTTE suicide cadre attached. To what purpose ?

    Re-cap Colonial times of nearly 500 yrs :

    In Colonial British Ceylon over 60% of the govt jobs were held by some 15% Tamil people who sided with the Colonists of that time. That is how the animosity with the Tamil people started. Also, Buddhism and the Sinhala Language was not given the first place in the country as per the Treaty with the British. Hundreds of Thousands of acres of Land were acquired by the British for the tea, coffee, rubber, & spice plantations, and the People lost the Land to the British Land Ordinance, whilst Tamil folk were given prominence with an English education and jobs in the British govt of Ceylon.
    Also, Tamil Labour was brought into then Ceylon mostly by the Colonial British & the Dutch – over a million and half Tamil people of Dalit origin were brought into then Ceylon to work as indentured labor, thus upsetting the delicate ethnic balance in the island forever. They stayed on and the Sirima/Shasthri Pact was never properly honored to send the labor back to Tamil Nadu. There are over 15 Million Dalit Tamil people in Tamil Nadu
    Tamil folk themselves fight their Caste Wars, exacerbating the situation, and Tamil Leaders laying blame for the problems on the so called ‘Sinhala govt’ in the South, and that a Federal State is needed for Tamils. Unfortunately, any Federal State will lead eventually to Tamil Eelam which will be an appendage of Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu & India will impose the Caste Structure all over again in Tamil Eelam. What Tamil folk ran away from in Tamil Nadu, will be re-imposed on them in Tamil Eelam.

    That is how the so called Sinhala/Tamil conflict came about and continues to date. It is due to this conflict that the army personnel are now unfairly arrested.

    What we need is to bring Peace at grass roots level to ALL the People of Lanka, not impose Fascism/neo-Colonization on Lanka as apparently envisaged by the UNP led Yahap people, all done in the name of ‘Reconciliation’.

    Any so called “Reconciliation by Force” will NOT work in the long run. It has to be a genuine Peace for the masses of Lanka. Justice for the masses must prevail. A Peace based on lies and deception will not work. The truth is out now and fair play must prevail, especially for the Sinhala masses who have fought so hard as they knew how to regain the Land & Jobs, dignity of labor, etc.

    Comments welcome.

  2. nilwala Says:

    Former President Rajapakse has explained the current sorry situation regarding the Yahapalana Government’s handling of national security and the persecution and harassmentof Intelligence personnel without just cause.

    He explains that contrary to the explanations advanced by the current govt., the Eelam war prosecuted during his time was NOT directed at the Tamil people, and states:
    “….separatist elements seek to portray the war as a war against the Tamil people, it was a war to end terrorism and was never directed at any ethnic group.”

    The Eelam wars that continued after September 2001 and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York, USA, took place under UN Resolution 1373 that had called on the world to unite against Terrorism everywhere in the world. Despite this, the UN/UK/India came down hard on Sri Lanka which has been the ONLY nation that successfully defeated a terrorist organization, acknowledged by these countries themselves as “one of the most ruthless, if not the most ruthless, in the world”.

    Reconciliation has remained as gestures from the GoSL ONLY with no reciprocity, and is belied by Sri Lanka’s Tamil political leaders and their local cohorts plus their global support organisations that still pursue a separatist cause.

    In a pitifully primitive display of vengeance, the Security protection offered the ex-President and the ex-SecDef Gotabhaya have been withdrawn. In addition, Intelligence personnel who delivered yeoman service to the country are being kept under remand for months without Charges being brought, and with cancellation of their salaries.
    It is a disgrace the the current that political leaders have set in place strangely comic and starkly undemocratic Parliamentary arrangements, dismissing arrogantly the Peoples’ Franchise in a country that has practiced Democratic governance since Independence. Whither Sri Lanka ??

  3. nilwala Says:

    Correction: Lines at end of comment should read –
    “It is a disgrace that the current political leaders have set in place strangely comic and starkly undemocratic Parliamentary arrangements, dismissing arrogantly the Peoples’ Franchise in a country that has practiced Democratic governance since Independence. Whither Sri Lanka ??”

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